“The humble man makes room for progress; the proud man believes he is already there” –

Ed Parker

I have seen lots of progress this week during our classes focusing on sparring technique. We have been going back to basics, breaking everything down to improve footwork and using our guard effectively, then moving on to efficient striking combinations. With the Juniors this has been a case of drilling elbow tag, which is fun and works on the foundations of sparring. Combining footwork drills while maintaining a solid guard to score points with strikes (taps) to the elbows. This builds students confidence and skill before they move up to higher grades and full sparring. The Senior students have been working on various drills dependant on confidence and skill level. The beauty of our WASP programme is we have developed multiple drills to suit students from white belt to black. Factoring in the need to build confidence in this area as a priority because I personally feel you need to put the strikes and combinations we learn at the Warrior Academy into practice in order to fully learn the mechanics of the movements, but also how to apply them in real situations. Everyone worked very hard this week and a lot of the Junior students went home with a Black stripe on their belt to show that they have mastered the basics of elbow tag, which was brilliant, so a massive well done to those that did!

This week we will be focusing on Leadership in class. Having student lead warm ups and working on building our young warriors confidence so they can stand up in front of the class and teach a technique or take everybody through some fitness or stretching. Public speaking is a major fear for the majority and practicing this in class is a huge boost to confidence and fantastic skill for all of our students which will benefit them in many aspects of their lives. Also teaching a technique always gives you a better understanding of our many strikes and combinations we learn, allowing students to really break it down and look at it from a different perspective. Very beneficial for all our budding martial artists.

The nunchuku class has been perfecting the first kata and this week will be learning how to wrist roll. This is a great skill to learn because it can help combinations flow and looks really cool too!

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‘Enthusiasm is the mother of effort, and without it nothing great was ever achieved’  
– Emerson
What has been thoroughly identified in all classes but especially prevalent in what has been just the second week for many new students within the Warrior Academy is that this has certainly been a week of enthusiasm….
This week was focused on the white belt self-defence techniques, we utilised the smash pad for the delivery of the correct turning kick technique and after adding the palm block students worked in pairs with great control and team spirit.
In just two weeks students have learned the white belt combination, dojo rules, discipline, respect, etiquette , sitting stance, freeze , white belt self-defence techniques including; turning kick and blocks, the purpose, distance and structure of martial arts lines, self-control and focus, but what has been most impressive is the determination and enthusiasm that has been shining brightly in all the new recruits and an eagerness to progress and question areas in an honest respectful manner…
’Young Warriors of the Academy…. I bow to you all…. Well done’
It’s not all work, work, work in the academy and this week has also seen the introduction of the new game known as ‘Chaos’ which seemed to go down a storm in all classes both experienced and new… so much so that requests were being made to play it again at the next sessions; the interesting thing about our games is that they are always for a purpose…. The now well-known ‘Stinky Mitt’ has a purpose of teaching the sitting stance and single punches in a very fun way for all…..Chaos deals with speed, agility and being able to literally have eyes in the back of your head for reaction and counter reaction along with requiring great listening skills whilst all the Chaos is going on… great fun.
In the classes training hard towards their 1st or in some cases 2nd and 3rd grading focus has been on recovering skill sets, fine tuning technique and preparing them for this next week’s yellow stripe assessment which is presented for achievement of their leadership tasks; this involves students facing a class and taking various elements of warm up or techniques or combinations which builds confidence, strengthens the friendships within the classes as well being as used as a check for individual comprehension and ability…. Guys you can all do it, you’re ready, just focus and smash it!!!
See you all in class !!
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